Cheap.

After months of walking around in my black heels, almost wearing them every day...

They have started to deteriorate.

Lining inside the shoe is peeling away.

They've lost their shine.

The actual heel has been scraped away, so, now, it's a steel rod that I'm walking on.

The leather is peeling up from the heel exposing the steel rod.

How I walked on these, I don't know.

All that to say, today, I replaced them. Finally. And still felt a twinge of guilt.

How much of a cheapass am I? When did this happen? :)

Can I also confess that I save gift tissue paper? I do.

BUT. Will spend $50 on customized Pottery Barn stockings.

So there you go.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and is starting their Christmas spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not thinking ahead, I just went to the grocery store tonight to buy everything for our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.  The UnSafeway on Federal was surprisingly calm and had everything I needed in stock, whew!

Since Val & Wayne headed to California to celebrate with Wayne's sister and parents . . .

And because Mom & Ken moved to Virginia . . .

And because Jordan has to work on Friday and all the Kal's are in Wyoming . . .

We are celebrating here in Denver with our besties.

Attempting my first Thanksgiving by myself (and Andrea) . . . wish us luck!

J and I are off to Casper on Saturday morning to spend the weekend at the cabin with the Kal's. . .

Hope everyone has safe holiday travels and celebrates with their loved ones!

Home Making

On Friday I drove past a sign on the way home from work outside of a nunnery.

"Craft Sale, Holiday Gift Baskets, Baked goods, & more!"

Naturally, I was intrigued.  And, I need to support the local nuns, of course.

Not two seconds later my phone was ringing, it was Andrea.  She was on her way to my house to pick me up and off we headed to this (most likely) huge craft sale!  Surely I was going to find baskets full of holiday goodies.

As we walk in with anticipation of what we're going to find, we talk about what we need.  Gift baskets for coworkers?  Holiday wreaths?  Maybe we'll see something that inspires a craft day . . .

Instead, we walk in, and see . . . junk.  Tables full of garage sale items.  And, overcooked cookies.

Oh, nuns . . .

We couldn't leave empty-handed.  Now, we felt obligated (bad word choice?) - yearned to support the nunnery.

Just as we're about to leave we stumble upon a wire photo-holder.  {Not the best description}.  There were two left, we grabbed both and headed to the cashier.

With no price tag on either item, we pull out a $10, expecting to pay at least $5 dollars.  Oh no, far from. The sweet nun rang us up at . . .

.50 cents.

For both.

We walked out of there feeling like we robbed a group of nuns.

So, here is my steal of a deal.  Put an old picture of sweet grammy in it.

In other news, I got a package in the mail from Mom today.  Inside were some of the postcards guests signed at the wedding.  (We gave them to Mom to mail to us though out the year as a reminder of our wedding.)

Also inside were a set of three homemade tags with old-fashioned images of a fork, spoon, and a knife from {Paper Source} over at Etsy.  Needing some decoration for our dining room, I put them in a frame and wha-la!  Instant art.

Something Warm

Have been wanting to pick up blogging again since the wedding but had an extreme case of writer's block.  Because, you know, blogging is intense.

But tonight, while making a batch of homemade Hot Buttered Rum, I decided, I'm back.

Needing a place to release some creative juices.

So. Back to Hot Buttered Rum.  Have you had it?  So SO yummy.  It reminds me of when I was little  -  we would always celebrate Christmas at Aunt Lyndee's and Hot Buttered Rum was in everyone's hand.  Add a little rum for the adults and it turned into an affair to remember.

There are a handful of recipes out there but I went with this recipe because the vanilla ice cream sounded so yummy.

Ingredients

• 1 pound butter
• 1 pound brown sugar
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar
• 1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Blend in brown sugar and confectioners' sugar. Remove from heat, and whisk in the ice cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour mixture into a plastic container, seal, and freeze.
   
   
2. In a coffee mug, measure 1 tablespoon Hot Buttered Rum Batter and 1 fluid ounce of rum, then fill cup with boiling water. Stir, and sprinkle top of drink with nutmeg.
   

Enjoy!